Change Nippon Declaration 2009

Whatever is wrong, let’s make it right.

Toward a Japan we can trust.

Time has come to fundamentally change our mindset and choices we make, so that the troubled system can be amended.

One hundred forty years have passed since the Meiji Restoration when Japan opened its doors to the rest of the world. And yet, Japan remains to be a society with vested interests, run by a centralized, bureaucracy-led government, symbolized by old-fashioned public works projects.
Now is the time to change Japan.

Yasuo Tanaka and his New Party Nippon advocate ‘no constraints, no collusion.’ We pledge to achieve social justice and economic freedom at the same time. We will ‘houseclean’ Japan, so that it can regain dynamism and create a ‘fair, open and simple’ political system.
We are ready to ‘Change Japan.’

1. We pledge to carry out drastic restructuring of the government and administrative offices and to create a society which can ‘MAINTAIN ORDER AND SAVE THE PEOPLE,’ acting on consumer desires, rather than supplier’s convenience.

2. We pledge to promote policies which will create dynamism and increase employment for people who were born and raised in communities across the nation and who are willing to exercise their ingenuity and make efforts to live each day the best they can.

3. We pledge to take drastic measures to protect Japan’s beautiful landscape and to preserve the precious environment which can accommodate various creatures.

4. We pledge to promote and crate social security which embodies humanity and trust, so that people, who are earnestly working, studying and living in this country can have hope and pride, instead of fear and anxiety.

5. We pledge to contribute in creating an international community which will ‘ MAINTAIN ORDER AND SAVE PEOPLE,’ so that Japan will become, both in name and in substance, a nation the world can trust, citizens of the world can trust, and enterprises in the world can trust.

New Party Nippon will ’develop labor-intensive industries,’ ‘reinforce education and vocational training’ and ‘ensure the minimum standards of living for everyone including babies and the elderly.’
Together with you, we pledge to create a matured, economic community = a pastel society where all-Japanese are middle class.

Toward a Japan we can trust. Now is the time to change Japan.

Basic Policies of New Party Nippon

●We will change the mindset, make different choices and revise the system itself.
・・・Creating a pastel society where all-Japanese are middle-class・・・

1.We will make the government ‘free of constraints,’ by diluting the doctrine of ‘adhering to precedent,’ which has long been espoused and practiced by many politicians, bureaucrats, industries and organizations that cling to vested interests.

2. ‘No More Dam’ represents ‘No More Waste.’ We will eliminate all wasteful, political and administrative spending, through friendly competition and a zero-based review on all public works projects.

3. We will revive ‘Monotsukuri-manufacturing (traditional handcraftsmanship) which rewards ‘Takumi, or mastery,’ and promotes a new, community-based, ‘Tri-industrial Revolution.’ We will achieve a mature economy which will ‘maintain order and save the people,’ and is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, tradition and climate.

4. We will support and foster welfare, medicine, education, nursing care and tourism, which rely solely on people helping other people. We will create a mature society through labor-intensive innovation of the 21st century.

5. We will establish a social safety net to guarantee ‘Basic Income.’ By ridding bureaucratic offices of wasteful, discretionary spending, we will jointly create aspiring, community-based, middle-class families.

6.We will establish ‘Thunderbirds-international rescue team,’ which will be the first to arrive in disaster zones where people are facing difficulties. Japan will establish itself as intersection (crossroads, a hub for diplomacy), connecting all cardinal points; the US, China, Asia, Oceania and Russia.

1. Administrative and fiscal reform I to materialize a society which maintains order and saves the people
2. Administrative and fiscal reform II to materialize a society which maintains order and saves the people
3. Industrial and employment policies I for a society which maintains order and saves the people
4. Industrial and employment policies II for a society which maintains order and saves the people
5. A roadmap to establishing a north European-style, social security system

6. Foreign affairs and security policies for a Japan the world can trust

1.Administrative and fiscal reform I to materialize a society which maintains order and saves the people

We won’t flinch, we won’t surrender, or we won’t cut N’ run!
Politics free of constraints and collusions!

We will make the government ‘free of constraints,’ by diluting the doctrine of ‘adhering to precedent,’ which has long been espoused and practiced by many politicians, bureaucrats, industries and organizations that cling to vested interests.

PROPOSITION 1We will carry out a zero-based review on all public works projects and eliminate collusions between the government and enterprises, organizations and unions that cling to vested interests.

1. We will carefully re-examine piles of budget requests filed at the mercy of bureaucrats to eliminate any project hidebound by precedent.
2. We will abolish public-interest corporations and independent administrative agencies affiliated with central and local governments and repeal subsidies.
3. We will establish, in the ruling body of the Board of Audit, ‘panels of experts,’ similar to the ‘Committees for Inquest of Prosecution’ whose members are chosen from among the public.
4. We will return, to the central government, authority to execute mega projects which should require grand, national commitment (such as upgrading of urban infrastructure). By doing so, we will amend the murky structure which allows Amakudari-practice of reemploying retired senior bureaucrats at high pay at government-affiliated organizations.

PROPOSITION 2We will drastically revise the national and local public servant system to eliminate vested interests which are dependent on the government. We will transform the mindset of central and local government officials from serf-serving to serving public and national interests.

1. Officials at the level of division chief and higher will be appointed directly by the heads of the ministries and agencies．
2. State ministers will be responsible for selecting and appointing government council members. Appointments based on recommendations from bureaucrats, industries and organizations will be abolished.
3. Amakudari – a practice of high-level government officials taking jobs in private or semipublic organizations will be banned. Double or triple payments of retirement benefits will be abolished.
4. The fixed-term, annual salary system will be introduced for national and local government officials at the level of division chiefs and higher, or those aged 40 and older. The public servants will be rated on merit or performance and contracts will be re-signed or renewed every five years. Those who will opt out of the system will be paid an annual wage of 120 percent or less the average national income.
5. We clearly dismiss, as unproductive, a debate on the regional system based on simple permutation and combination without regards to geographical, economic, cultural and transportation zones. Instead, we will focus on achieving community-based, sustainable autonomy in municipalities and establish an alliance of municipalities with a spirit of sharing duties (such as fire-fighting and cleaning.) Budget-making and other responsibilities will be handed over from the central or prefectural government to municipalities, so that the present, triple-layered structure will be streamlined to double-layered.
6. We will immediately abolish burden charges almost-forcibly levied from municipalities by prefectures that are protesting their own burden charges imposed by the central government in national projects. Such hypocrisy must end.
7. We will give a full review on budget allocated for anti-discrimination measures, virtually patronized by groups with vested interests. We will also review forest taxes which are in fact used to pay for personnel costs for forestry cooperatives, while little progress has been seen on thinning work for which the revenues are initially allotted.

PROPOSITION 3 We will make the Diet a venue for true ‘statesmen and stateswomen’ who are determined to draft and execute a centenary plan for the nation, for its people, not for those power-hungry ‘politicians’ who only care about their short-term gains.
1. We will ban leaders and members of central and local governments from running for office from the same constituency for four and more consecutive times. We will also ban relatives of up to the third degree from serving as their public secretaries.
2. We will clarify the roles of both houses of the Diet by overhauling the election system. We will abolish the proportional representation system for the lower house, so that candidates will be elected from their constituencies only. All upper house members will be elected by party name under the proportional representation system to avoid futile confrontations between the central and local governments. By following a French example, the seats of the upper house will almost automatically be filled concurrently by the heads of 47 prefectures and 18 government-designated major cities.
3. We will establish the Election-leave law to legitimatize ‘absence from work’ for candidates and election volunteers to create a social environment which will make it easier for people to participate in public office elections.
4. We will expand the scope of tax exemptions for individual donations to political and non-profit organizations.
5. We will establish a channel, dedicated to politics, comparable to CATV C-SPAN, which will provide live broadcasts such as diet debates to promote media literacy (insight) so that the public will have more accurate and solid understanding of information.

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This is indeed an ultimate, “zero-budget’ project!

When the waves of American-type consumption also hit France (Food Culture Hall of Fame), an increasing number of people began buying bread at corners of large distribution centers, made and frozen at central kitchens, and thawed and heated after being transported.

Feeling a sense of crisis, boulangeries (bread makers in French) took action in mid-1990’s, warning consumers against abandoning them, hard-working boulangeries. As a result, an article protecting ‘appellation ‘boulanger (baker)’ and sign ‘boulangerie (bakery)’ was added to the French code of consumption. (I’utilisation de I’appellation de ‘boulanger’ et I’enseigne commerciale de ‘boulangerie,’ ‘le code de la consummation.’)

—- Terms ‘Boulanger’ and ‘Boulangerie’ can only be used by ‘legitimate’ professionals who follow through the entire process of bread-making on their own; from choosing raw material, making knead bough, fermenting, shaping and baking it into bread; at a factory annexed to their outlets where bread is sold to end-consumers. Any violation will result in a two-year prison term or a fine of the equivalent of five million yen. —-

This is indeed and ultimate ‘zero-budget’ project. It won’t require establishing a public-interest corporation whose hidden, real purpose is to secure plum jobs for retiring officials, nor will it require murky subsidies. It only takes an article with a few sentences to provide hope and encouragement to people who are earnestly working, studying, and living every day in this country. That’s what politics ‘ought-to-be.’

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2.Administrative and fiscal reform II to materialize a society which maintains order and saves the people

Politics of Fairness, Openness (transparency) and Simplicity.

‘No More Dam’ represents ‘No More Waste.’ We will eliminate all wasteful, political and administrative spending through friendly competition and a zero-based review on all public works projects.

PROPOSITION 1In the spirit of ‘friendly competition,’ we will always carry out open and transparent bidding and make public works projects entirely community-based, placing emphasis on maintaining and repairing public goods including roads and rivers.

1. In the spirit of ‘No more bid-rigging’ and ‘No more negotiated-contracting,’ we will introduce an open and transparent bidding system for not only murky but all public works projects in all fields, to cut down administrative costs.
2. We will immediately abolish the practice of negotiated contracting with various corporations or organizations.
3. We will replace budgeting ‘on a single-year basis’ with ‘multiple-year’ budgeting for road projects to ensure seamless project implementation, so road projects won’t be concentrated at the year-end or the fiscal year end.
4. An open and transparent bidding system will open doors to community-based, micro, small and medium enterprises which have had to work as sub-sub, or sub-sub-sub contractor. The shift to direct B to C order will create jobs and energize communities.

PROPOSITION 2We will introduce a ‘Fair, Open (transparent), and Simple’ tax system to carry out fiscal reform without tax increases.

1. We will deliver on a ‘No-more waste’ pledge before debating on a tax rate.
2. We will introduce an invoice method to consumption tax to eliminate unfair tax profits, just like other nations have done. Then, we will repeal the consumption tax on food and medicine (just like Britain did).
3. We will introduce a taxpayer identification numbering system to prevent tax evasion and to improve the income capture rate for employers and employees.
4. We will simplify and increase transparency of income tax, corporate tax as well as consumption tax to establish a ‘social safety net=to provide basic income BI.’

PROPOSITION 3 We will establish innovative rules to provide relief for privately-owned companies and debt guarantees for individuals, to regain dynamism in our society.

1. We will adopt stricter rules on injecting public funds, and when the recipient is a financial institution, all executive officers and higher-ups in the management will have to resign as a precondition. We will, in principle, ban the injection of public funds to manufacturers and other private businesses, which include financing through public-sector financial institutions, because the practice will generate doubts from the viewpoint of social justice and economic freedom.
2. We will abolish the ‘joint and several obligations’ system to prevent small and medium-size business owners from committing suicide.

PROPOSITION 4 We will overhaul the present, convoluted and opaque legal system, from the viewpoint of consumers.

1. We will carry out a zero-based review on anachronistic laws, decrees and ordinances, ‘of the bureaucrats, by the bureaucrats and for the bureaucrats.’
2. We will limit the application of the lay judge system to traffic-related trials and will introduce the jury system in administrative lawsuits and negligence lawsuits against listing companies.
3. We will establish a consumer-oriented law (the Consumer Law), modeling after the French Consumer law.
4. We will revisit the Nationality Law which was revised without debate last fall, so the law will clearly stipulate DNA analysis and support obligation.

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Being dubbed ”Governor fighting bid-ragging,” Yasuo Tanaka was the first to eliminate all discretionary contracts and selective tendering (which is a breeding ground for bid-rigging, making law of the jungle prevail) in not only for public works but all projects. Tanaka implemented an open and transparent competitive tendering system in various fields.

The efforts resulted in pushing down the average successful biffing rate nearing 100 percent before he took office; clear evidence of bid riggings; to the lowest nationwide of less than 80 percent. The cost of one project was cut from 1million yen to 800,000 yen. The opaque flow of tax funds was eliminated.

The system opened doors to local community-based contractors, which always had to reconcile working as sub-sub, or sub-sub-sub contractors. Instead, the new system allowed them to directly take part in the bidding. Civil engineering contractors also upheld the change, on ground that despite the 20 percent budget cut, they could still make money under the new system.

Tanaka appointed Mr. Masao Ogura, who is known at savior of Yamato Transport Company to lead a taskforce aimed at overhauling extra-governmental agencies. Such agencies has become a pandemonium of pork-barrel politics and retired government officials seeking plum jobs by what’s called, Amakudari practice. The effort was also intended to change the mindset and the corrupt system. Tanaka not only reviewed every budget, expenses and subsidies, but personnel dispatches as well. He also abolished, consolidated or downsized agencies. In the end, he overhauled 96 percent of all 54 then-existing organizations. Cutting down unnecessary expenses is the first thing that ought to be done.

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Declaration ‘no-more-dam’ inspires Qualitative Change in public works projects!

‘No more dam’ was declared by Yasuo Tanaka on February 20th, 2001, six months after he took office as Nagano Governor. The declaration was not about ‘whether or not’ to construct a dam. Construction of all dams under the jurisdiction of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry as well as those of prefectural governments are 70 percent paid by the central government and 30 percent paid by local autonomies. The share of financial burden is applied to all other massive public works projects as well.

On the other hand, 80 percent of the total budget goes to super general contractors whose head offices are located in Tokyo or Osaka and only 20 percent goes to local businesses. That means, local people are destined to lose money. The mechanism of massive public works projects was designed and created by bureaucrats for the sake of the central government to pump up money from local governments.

Instead, if budget is allocated to pay for bank protection, river dredging and preservation of forest in upper reaches of the river, which can be handled by community-based companies, it will directly provide employment and dynamism to local communities. Decentralization and transition to community-based public works projects is what Tanaka always intends to achieve by ‘no-more-dam’ declaration.

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3.Industrial and employment policies I to create a society which maintains order and saves the people

We will revive ‘Monotsukuri’ (traditional handcraftsmanship
) manufacturing which rewards ‘Takumi, or mastery,’ and promotes a new, community-based, ‘Tri-industrial Revolution.’ We will achieve mature economy which will ‘maintain order and save the people,’ deeply rooted in Japanese culture, tradition and climate.

PROPOSITION 1 We will promote new Tri-industrial revolution (agriculture, forestry and fisheries) and promote policies of security, safety, satisfaction and hope.

1. We will introduce a comprehensive, ‘agricultural land evaluation system’ (to assess marketability, soil, environment, employment, accessibility and so forth) and clarify the baseline for income security.
2. We will offer cash incentives and guarantee prices for those who grow agricultural produce without chemicals or reduced the use of chemicals by 50 percent.
3. We will introduce a ‘place of origin identification and control system’ across the nation and improve food self-sufficiency.
4. We will provide subsidies to land owners for planting plum, bamboo and other trees to prevent and control disasters in cultivation-abandoned areas.
5. We will remove three-facet river and canal protections and replace them with multi-natural-shaped bank protections. We will also remove snow fences and plant ‘snow and wind break’ forests.
6. We will complete thinning cedar, cypress and other coniferous trees (which occupy 30 percent of the national land and yet are dilapidated) in five years time and will launch a ‘Forest New Deal’ which will create employment in intermountain regions.
7. We will be flexible in providing subsidies to wooden guardrail, furniture, biomass and nano-carbon, to promote the use of domestic lumber and thinned wood.
8. We will preserve broadleaf forest in upper river basins and help promote marine culture projects.

PROPOSITION 2 We will move from ‘construction to repair.’ We will make social capital investment to create community-based employment and completely transform the modality of public works projects, from safety and security viewpoints.

1. We will bury electric cables under the ground in areas within a 500 meter radius of train stations across the nation and secure pavement on one-side of the road.
2. will make all elementary, junior and senior high school buildings across the nation ‘quake-resistant’ in five years time.
3. We will conduct emergency-strength tests and reinforcement work on all tunnels and bridges across the nation.
4. We will freeze all direct and auxiliary dam constructions which are on-going or planned, and review flood control plans.
5. We will prioritize evacuation measures and levee reinforcement to protect the lives of people and property in the community. We will also promote community renovation including house relocations.
6. We will abolish general subsidizing for dam construction and introduce a flat subsidy rate to all methods of construction, and promote flood control without dam construction.
7. We will carry out inspections on all rivers in the fall typhoon seasons and appropriate a supplementary budget for dredging work, called streambed protection.
8. We will abolish girder bridges remotely responsible for flooding and replace them with girder-less bridges.
9. We will review ‘customary water rights’ for the first time since 1896 (Meiji 29), from the viewpoint that the rivers are common property for all.
10. We will establish the groundwater law and nationalize water-source forests to strategically secure water as part of national security.

1. We will intensively develop technologies and produce new energies including hydrogen and bio to be used as Japan’s strategic resources.
2. We will simplify legal procedures to build ‘micro hydropower generation = hydraulic turbine generation’ which makes good use of Japanese Climate, to secure local energy production for local consumption.
3. We will establish detailed rules on strict standards for the use of corrosion-resistant titanium to the seawater cooling system, as well as nickel chrome to high-temperature/high pressure parts, to improve safety in nuclear power generation which now depends on stainless steel pipes.

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Wooden guardrails are part of the landscape
They are the symbols of forest preservation and local employment.

There are only four companies in Japan which manufacture steel guardrails. All of them are subsidiaries of major steal corporations. Sixty percent of the construction costs for all prefectural and village roads are paid from the national officers, but maintenance, repair and guardrail installation costs are paid by local governments. Immediately after taking office, Tanaka invited local civil engineering contractors to join in efforts to develop Shinshu-type wooden guardrails that are as durable as those made of steel. After trials and errors, their wooden guardrails succeeded in passing a state-sponsored durability test. By implementing thinning, manufacturing and installment work, Tanaka expanded the local job market by 500 percent.

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4. Industrial and employment policies II for a society which maintains order and saves the people

Hoping to create a decent society, filled with humanity, trust and grace, where people can live in dignity.

We will support welfare, medicine, education, nursing care and tourism whose existence solely relies upon real people helping other people. We will create a mature society through a 21st century-type labor-intensive innovation.

PROPOSITION 1 Health Care policies

1. We will abolish ‘the Medical Care System for the Elderly’ and make health care free of charge for people aged 75 and older.
2. We will fundamentally review the medical remuneration system to improve labor conditions for heath care professionals, including salaries and working hours.
3. We will promote creating an environment for female doctors who retire to take care of their children or for other family reasons and elderly doctors so that they can contribute to community health care as SOHO doctors. SOHO = small office home office
4. We will establish a medical bus network connecting medically-underserved areas and key community hospitals to ensure safety and security for the elderly people and families with small children.
5. We will promptly begin inactivating blood products for transfusion, which is already underway in Europe, the US and other parts of Asia, to prevent a recurrence of tragedies caused by transmission of infectious diseases through blood transfusion. We will create ‘blood banks for autologous blood transfusion’ including component transfusion.
6. We will repeal import duties for medical resources, from the viewpoint of health care workers.
7. We will introduce a medical malpractice inquiry system, similar to the Maritime Accident Inquiry Agency, to prevent psychiatric atrophy in the medical field.
8. We will legislate an entire ban on smoking at all restaurants, following the examples of France and Italy which take pride in their histories of food culture, similar to Japan.

PROPOSITION 2 Nursing care and welfare policies
We will review the nursing care insurance system from the viewpoint of care recipients and their families.

1. We will review the nursing care insurance system, which has become nothing but a desk plan, so that the system will reflect opinions of care-recipients and their families, as well as caregivers and their dispatchers.
2. We will promptly improve working conditions for nursing caregivers.
3. We will fundamentally review the false-labeled, ‘Services and Supports for Persons with Disabilities Act’ and relocate people with disabilities (from welfare facilities) to communities, following the example of Nagano prefecture.
4. We will provide joint daycare services for both the elderly and children. We will establish at least one such facility in each elementary school district where elderly people, babies and toddlers can have lunch together and take a nap, to make welfare geographically-distributed, more gentle and reliable, rather than divided by generation.

PROPOSITION 3Educational and cultural policies
We will abolish the standardized education system and establish a learning system which will nurture self-disciplined individuals.

1. We will shift from ‘relaxed education’ to ‘trustful education’ through friendly competition.
2. We will revive trustful, public education and reduce the number of students in all elementary through high school classes and make the education free of charge.
3. We will make life-long education costs paid by individuals tax-deductible, because we believe continuing education is the source of dynamism.
4. We will make it compulsory ‘discipline classes’ for all children aged three and younger, so that they will learn for themselves to tell right from wrong.
5. We will establish new classes for junior and senior high school students to learn the history of their hometowns as well as Japanese tradition, culture and art.
6. School library books will be paid by the government to create an environment for children from across the nation to enjoy reading.

PROPOSITION 4Building Workers Collective
Creating fair workplace through cooperative investment, cooperative management and cooperative labor is the only way to renew humane community/society that transcends the modern times.

We will legislate the idea of ‘forming a cooperative union with cooperative workforce.’

PROPOSITION 5 Establishing ‘decent work’ for all
We will replace the standardized minimum wage with industry/community-based minimum wages to create a society where all-Japanese are middle-class and everyone can have a decent and rewarding work.

1. We will reinforce various vocational training and education in which Japan lag, budget-wise and in many ways, far behind Europe and the United State.
2. We will make sure techniques and the spirit of Takumi: mastery: be inherited by the next generation, not only in Mono-tsukuri (traditional handcraftsmanship) but in welfare, medicine, education, nursing care and tourism, whose existence solely relies on people helping other people.
3. We will nationally promote vocational training, similar to ‘Shinshu Lumberjack Classes,’ to develop human resources needed for the new tri-industrial revolution and bring forth a structural change in communities, heavily dependant on old-fashioned public works projects.

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Transforming unused buildings to daycare center for the elderly and children

Vacant stores is shopping districts and unoccupied houses in villages were refurbished to provide joint daycare services for the elderly and children aged up to 3 years old, so that they could spend time ‘under the same roof.’ Yasuo Tanaka persuaded the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and brought about a revolutionary change in its welfare policy which had only approved of the construction of new buildings. Nagano created 300 such facilities in elementary school districts with its own budget. It’s a new community-based welfare concept that spans across generations, inviting the elderly and children to share wisdom and vitality.

Yasuo Tanaka transformed the bidding system and extra-governmental organizations which had been a pandemonium of vested interests. In his six years as governor, Tanaka reduced outstanding debts for 6 consecutive years and achieved back-to-back primary surpluses for 7 consecutive fiscal years. Nagano was the only prefecture in Japan to do so.

Using the surplus budget as revenue sources, Tanaka introduced elementary school classes ‘limited to 30 children,’ for the first time in Japan. Tanaka also launched the re-training system for unqualified teachers to revive and renew education.

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5. A roadmap to North European style, social security system

We will create a society in which ‘everyone, at any time, at any place,’ will have an opportunity and inspiration to take part in.

We will establish a social safety net to provide ‘Basic Income.’ By integrating ‘pension’ and ‘social welfare,’ we will eliminate wasteful, discretionary spending at bureaucratic offices and reinstate aspiring, community-based, middle-class families.

PROPOSITION 1Introducing a social safety net = basic income (BI)
Basic Income’ security is a dramatic system, already in the making in northern Europe. It unconditionally provides everyone with minimum necessary, living expenses.

1. We will provide everyone, young and old, with fixed monthly allowances.
2. We will integrate cash benefits (pension, welfare benefits) under the present social security system (insurance, allowances, assistance). We will also actively increase benefits for people with disabilities and single parent homes.
3. We will introduce the pension passbook system, which New Party Nippon has always advocated over the past four years. Passbooks will clearly state monthly premium payments and future monthly benefits which one will be guaranteed to receive at retirement. The passbooks will also clearly state the total of pension benefits, in accordance with the past reserved amount and period. The total amount will be guaranteed and people will have an option of either receiving it in lump sum, or receiving it along with the monthly basic income.
4. We will phase out the Social Insurance Agency and municipal welfare offices that have become a symbol of discretionary administration.

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Simulation ‘Basic Income (BI)’

When the government provides each citizen, young and old, with a basic monthly income of 50 thousand yen, everyone will have income stated below.

The employment and family patterns which the Japanese social security system had long been based on are changing. Some people work full time, while others work part-time or on contract basis. The family pattern is also diversifying and is no longer restricted to that of a man being a breadwinner and his wife and children dependant on him. Whit job insecurity and no fixed income, the concept for a standard family is changing.

The idea of Basic Income guarantee is, in fact, antithetical to big government intervention. With the introduction of BI, income deduction in the individual income tax system will no longer be necessary and the taxation system and social security system will be integrated. It will streamline administrative work and eliminate expenses such as, collection of social insurance premiums, records-taking as well as selective means test fees (which is indispensable for welfare benefit payment).

The Basic Income Guarantee will also be cost-effective from the business management viewpoint. When a company pays an employee a monthly salary of 200 thousand yen plus part of his social insurance premium, it’s expending 300 thousand yen in total. It should make better sense for the government to guarantee a citizen, without condition, 200 thousand yen in income because it will reduce his dependency on welfare and burden on his employer. Basic income guarantee will prevent welfare from being sacrificed and simultaneously cut down overblown government intervention.

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6.Dilomatic and security policies for a ‘Japan the world can trust’

Toward a society in which people, who are available and capable, can contribute, by doing what they can, the best they can, at places that are available to them.

We will establish ‘Thunderbirds-international rescue team,’ which will swiftly arrive in disaster zones where people are facing difficulties. Japan will establish itself as intersection (a hub for diplomacy), connecting all cardinal points; the US, China, Asia, Oceania and Russia.

PROPOSITION 1 We will establish international rescue team ‘Thunderbirds (tentative name).’

We will begin deliberating a bill to reorganize Self Defense Forces as Thunderbirds (a tentative name) which will immediately head for various parts of the world, where people are suffering from natural disasters, such as earthquakes or Tsunamis, or caught in a civil war or starving. We will provide rescue efforts, medical assistance and reconstruct people’s homes. ‘The Peshawar Society,’ headed by Doctor Tetsu Nakamura, provides medical services, secure water resources and launch agricultural projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That sort of international assistance is truly appropriate for Japan which is the world’s only victim of atomic bombing. Such efforts correspond to the idea of international cooperation which will help ‘maintain order and save the people’ in peril.

PROPOSITION 2We will legislate the principle of disclosing diplomatic documents.

We will obligate the preservation of all diplomatic documents and establish severe punitive measures against malicious mischief. Just like in the US, the documents will be made public 15 years later.

PROPOSITION 3 We will newly establish training schools for people who will contribute to international organizations and promote activities of international public servants who have the experience of residing in Japan.

We will train people from Asia to work at international organizations and enhance Japan’s presence to match its financial contribution to the United Nations.

PROPOSITION 4We will begin concrete talks with the fast-growing economies of BRIC’s, with an eye toward creating the ‘third currency’ comparable to the dollar and the euro.
* BRIC’ s = Brazil, Russia, India and China

PROPOSITION 5Japan will take initiative in establishing ‘unified kanji characters,’ modeling the alphabet, for them to be used to promote solidarity in Asia.

PROPOSITION 6Japan, along with China and India, will set numerical targets to reduce, on a global scale, green house gasses to half by 2050, as the three nations account for about 30 percent of the world’s total emissions.

PROPOSITION 7 Japan will establish itself as intersection (crossroads, a hub for diplomacy), with the US, China, Asia, Oceania and Russia in four cardinal points and strategically build sustainable maturity for Japan to serve as a transit hub in various areas such as the economy, people, goods, money, culture.

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Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds is a British, mid-1960’s special effect television show, set in the 21st century, using a form of marionette puppetry. The series focused on the adventures of international Rescue, an organization created to help those in grave danger in various accidents and disasters around the globe. The rescuers flew into accident or disaster zones aboard Thunderbirds machines which use technically-advanced equipment and machinery.
The program was also aired in Japan by NHK, starting in 1966, and immediately become popular beyond generations, creating a phenomenon.